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Regulators across the globe have imposed penalties on consumers for digital piracy consumption. Contrary to expectations, however, digital piracy consumption has continued to grow. The authors develop a simple model of competition between a copyright holder and a pirate firm to offer a plausible account for this observation as well as actionable guidelines for optimal regulation design. The core of this idea is to endogenize the pirate firm's strategic investment in antitracking technologies that help consumers evade a regulator's penalty. The authors find that as the penalty rises, piracy consumption can surprisingly increase after decreasing first; relatedly, the copyright holder and the society may suffer from tighter regulation. Depending on the cost of antitracking technologies of the pirate firm, the regulator optimally sets the penalty to operate in two different regimes. When the technology is available at a low cost, the regulator can achieve the goals of maximizing social welfare and minimizing piracy consumption simultaneously by setting a moderate penalty that maximizes consumers' expected penalty and tolerates some level of piracy consumption. In contrast, when the technology is costly, the regulator should set a relatively high penalty to completely impede piracy supply. Additionally, the authors show that supply-side regulation does not substitute away demand-side regulation, and educating consumers about copyright protection may unintentionally lead to an increase in piracy consumption. Last, the authors identify complex nonmonotonic long-run effects of piracy consumption regulation on the copyright holder's incentives for content creation and copyright protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Journal of Children & Media, established in 2007, provided a scholarly platform for research on youth and media in the digital age. Scholars have focused on nuanced theories, digital and participatory research methods, and children's digital competence and rights. The journal has influenced global policies and legal frameworks, emphasizing the importance of diverse voices and cultural understanding in studying youth's digital experiences. Moving forward, scholars are urged to prioritize proactive approaches, collaboration with stakeholders, and mentorship of early-career researchers to address the evolving challenges of the digital society. [Extracted from the article]

Prior research suggests that high prices may motivate the decision to pirate entertainment goods. We analyzed a natural experiment that decreased the tax rate, and hence also the net prices of e-books, by 14% in Ireland while several other European countries were not affected. Using country-specific data on piracy visits, we found that this price decrease caused only a small and statistically insignificant decrease in total e-book piracy visits. However, we further decomposed piracy visits into those of direct pirates, who navigated directly to piracy sites, and indirect pirates, who searched to find piracy sites. The 14% price decrease caused no change in direct piracy visits but caused a statistically significant 27% decrease in indirect piracy visits. These findings align with prior research suggesting that search can play an important role in piracy, but only for some pirates. Our results demonstrate the potential of using price to mitigate piracy, but they also highlight the challenges firms face in competing with piracy for experienced pirates. We conclude by detailing both the policy and managerial implications of our work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Product Recommendation Strategy and Seller-Biased Recommendations We now segue from bundling economics to the theory of strategic product recommendation, and the nuances that arise when a product or service provider rethinks its approach about how to push a more profitable product to consumers, who exhibit heterogeneity with respect to their fit with it. The optimal strategy depends both on the search cost faced by consumers as well as the accuracy of information the seller possesses about consumer preferences. Using a recommendation system, for example, a seller can nudge potential consumers to a high-margin product, instead of simply recommending the product that would have offered them the highest utility [[28]]. In a two-channel scenario, a larger bundle discount entices more consumers to buy both channels but also results in a higher lost revenue as consumers who would have purchased both in any case can now do so at a lower price. [Extracted from the article]

The protection of intellectual property rights (IPR) in criminal law is an important aspect of the legal system that enforces rights holders and prevents the illegal use of intellectual products. The modern world, in which information and innovation play a key role in the development of society, requires effective IPR protection mechanisms at both the national and international levels. This paper examines various aspects of the criminal law protection of IPR, starting with basic concepts and ending with international agreements regulating this area. The concept of IPR covers a wide range of objects that are the results of creative and innovative activities: copyrights to literary, musical, artistic works, rights to inventions, trademarks, industrial designs, geographical indications and other intellectual products that have economic and social value. Criminal law protection of IPR in Ukraine is regulated by a number of legislative acts, in particular the Criminal Code of Ukraine, the Law of Ukraine «On Copyright and Related Rights», the Law of Ukraine «On the Protection of Rights to Inventions and Utility Models», etc. These regulations establish liability for infringement of intellectual property rights, including illegal use of IPR objects, piracy, counterfeiting of trademarks, which can cause significant material damage and affect the reputation of rights holders. An important place in the study is the analysis of the composition of crimes in the field of IPR. IPR crimes can vary in their nature and complexity. This can be both a direct violation of copyright, and more complex cases related to the counterfeiting of goods or the use of trademarks without the permission of the owner. Analysis of the criminal composition helps to understand which actions are subject to criminal liability and which sanctions can be applied to violators. Subjects of crimes in the field of IPR include both natural and legal persons who may be responsible for infringement of intellectual property rights. Particular attention is paid to the issues of identification and prosecution of violators, as well as problems arising in the process of law enforcement. The international aspect of IPR protection is an integral part of the modern legal system, as globalization leads to an increase in the international exchange of intellectual products and information. The work examines key international agreements, in particular the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), which establishes international standards for the protection of IPR. It is also important to analyze the role of international organizations, such as the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), in coordinating the efforts of various countries in the fight against IPR violations. The work also raises issues of problems and prospects for the development of criminal protection of IPR. Challenges associated with the development of digital technologies create new risks for rights holders, in particular in the area of digital piracy and copyright infringement on the Internet. In the conditions of globalization, the harmonization of national legislation with international standards is necessary, as well as the development of international cooperation mechanisms for the effective protection of IPR. In general, the study highlights current problems and provides recommendations for improving the system of criminal protection of IPR in Ukraine. Effective protection of intellectual property rights is a key factor in ensuring innovative economic development and increasing the country's competitiveness in the international arena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Driven by several elements, including the unwillingness to pay for material, the spread of subscription services, and the profitability of illegal activity, digital piracy has grown to be a common problem in the contemporary world. Along with financial damages for businesses and content creators, this phenomenon has legal repercussions for individuals involved in piracy and cybersecurity issues. The effective fight against digital piracy depends on an awareness of the drivers and hazards connected with this illegal activity. With an eye towards a thorough knowledge of this intricate problem, in this study, the focus centers on the reasons, attitudes, and actions behind digital piracy. Through examining how people defend their behavior in particular situations, in this study, the aim is to clarify the ethical issues and decision-making procedures related to piracy—even among otherwise law-abiding people. Combining a variety of the relevant literature and ideas, including situation ethics theory, in this study, we seek to provide insights for legislators, business players, and academics eager to meet the difficulties presented by digital piracy. This study adds to the continuous discussion on lessening the detrimental effects of digital piracy on content creators, businesses, and cybersecurity by looking at the underlying reasons for piracy and supporting legal access to material. Along with a dearth of research on the origins and moral questions of digital piracy, there is a lot of contradictory material. By examining the factors behind this unlawful activity, clarifying the complex dynamics involved, and offering understanding of the causes of digital piracy, this study seeks to close a significant void in the knowledge. The findings of this study will enable individuals to develop strategies for handling this prevalent issue in the digital era. Developing successful interventions that can reduce this illegal conduct and safeguard the interests of content producers, businesses, and cybersecurity overall depends on an awareness of the reasons behind digital piracy. This study advances the knowledge of the difficulties presented by this global phenomenon by investigating the ethical issues and decision-making procedures related to digital piracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Engineering (17264073) is the property of Republic of Iraq Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MOHESR) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Blockchain technology and non-fungible tokens have gained significant attention and widespread adoption due to their unique characteristics and potential for innovation in numerous industries, including education. In recent years, there has been a significant increase in digital learning resources such as multimedia-rich learning content, audio content, and online course content. The advancement of these learning resources has introduced several copyright challenges, such as copyright ownership, fair use of resources, licensing agreements, open educational resources and Creative Commons licenses, digital piracy, and international considerations. Copyright infringement in educational learning resources poses a significant concern that impacts content creators hugely and raises concerns regarding the quality and reliability of the content. This work proposes a copyright protection framework named EduCopyRight-Chain for educational resources using the Ethereum blockchain and non-fungible tokens to overcome concerning challenges. This work also presents a sharding approach within the proposed framework to enhance scalability. Additionally, this work proposes wallet generation, network joining, educational resource tokenization, and a verification approach by utilizing blockchain and non-fungible tokens. The proposed framework uses a Proof-of-Authority consensus mechanism to validate transactions over the peer-to-peer network, and an inter-planetary file system is used for the decentralized storage of associated records. This framework uses Remix IDE, MetaMask wallet, and the Sepolia test network. We use the BlockSim simulation toolkit to conduct experiments to evaluate the performance of the proposed framework in terms of throughput, latency, response time, and standard deviation. The proposed framework achieves an average throughput of 354.26 TPS, a latency of 62.2 milliseconds, a response time of 124.1 milliseconds, and a standard deviation of 144.2 milliseconds. This work also conducts a comparative analysis to assess security features and limitations between the proposed framework and related work. Our observation reveals that the proposed EduCopyRight-Chain framework has better features. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Computer und Recht is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article treats a phenomenon that has become nearly impossible to stop due to the current technological and informational advances: online piracy. It defines piracy and copyright, focusing on academic piracy. The article examines the main potential causes, starting with an analysis of social context prior to the first copyright law, exploring the economic factors that contributed to the rise of piracy. One of these factors is the influence of monopolies within the book market that raised prices and made books hard to afford for the lower classes. This situation created an opportunity for the first “pirates” to emerge, as they are known today. Four specialized studies on piracy were examined: one study explored the reasons for software piracy in 2000, while the other three investigated academic piracy in universities in Portugal (2013) and Denmark (2023; 2024). The main goals of this article are to understand how widespread academic piracy is in Romanian universities and to analyze the information-seeking behavior of Romanian students during their research process. Upon the conclusion of the study, it was found that a significant percentage (75.2%) of students are aware of at least one of the piracy resources mentioned in the questionnaire, and 69.1% of the participants use the academic databases provided by the universities. While most students believe that these resources are easy to find and use, 29.6% responded that they are not sufficient for their research needs, and 44.3% indicated that they are sometimes useful. Over a third of the students surveyed (35.2%) use pirated resources as their first option, and many of them (58.7%) declared that they are unaware of the legal status of these pirate sites. In conclusion, the students’ awareness about the ethics and legality of the research is questionable and one of the main reasons for their use of pirating resources is the lack of legal options. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital piracy is costly to creative economies across the world. Studies indicate that anti-piracy messages can cause people to pirate more rather than less, suggesting the presence of psychological reactance. A gender gap in piracy behavior and attitudes towards piracy has been reported in the literature. By contrast, gender differences in message reactance and the moderating impact of attitudes have not been explored. This paper uses evolutionary psychology as a theoretical framework to examine whether messages based on real-world anti-piracy campaigns cause reactance and whether this effect is explained by gender and pre-existing attitudes. An experiment compares one prosocial and two threatening messages against a control group to analyze changes in piracy intention from past behavior for digital TV/film. Results indicate that the prosocial message has no significant effect, whereas the threatening messages have significantly opposing effects on men and women. One threatening message influences women to reduce their piracy intentions by over 50% and men to increase it by 18%. We find that gender effects are moderated by pre-existing attitudes, as men and women who report the most favorable attitudes towards piracy tend to demonstrate the most polarized changes in piracy intentions. The practical implications of the results are that men and women process threatening messages differently, therefore behavioral change messages should be carefully targeted to each gender. Explicitly, threatening messages may be effective on women, but may have the reverse effect on men with strong favorable attitudes towards the target behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses the pervasive issue of digital piracy in the movie industry. Despite substantial efforts to combat piracy, its impact remains significant, resulting in substantial financial losses for companies. Digital rights management (DRM) has been introduced as a countermeasure to counter this challenge. While the security of video applications, including commercial and military videos, has gained prominence in recent research, this paper focuses on enhancing the encryption algorithm and presenting encryption results. Specifically, it explores the AES 128 encryption algorithm's vulnerabilities in the MPEG-DASH media file and proposes a randomized algorithm for video file encryption. To bolster security, the randomized approach leverages three robust algorithms: AES 256, Two-Fish, and Serpent. The randomized algorithm demonstrated significantly higher resistance to brute-force attacks than AES 128 CBC, as exemplified by a test scenario with a key length of 32 and 100 media chunks. By utilizing this combination of unbroken algorithms, the paper offers an efficient solution for offline-protected media storage, ultimately strengthening the security and privacy of the MPEG-DASH DRM system and mitigating the risk of media file piracy. The randomized algorithm consistently outperformed AES 128 CBC in terms of execution time across multiple media files, with the randomized algorithm completing the encryption process in 34,610 milliseconds for Media File 1, compared to AES 128 CBC, which required 59,910 milliseconds, showcasing a notable enhancement in speed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rampant piracy issue in the Philippines has significant repercussions for both the entertainment industry and the government. To address this concern, the Optical Media Board (OMB) was established in 2003 as a government agency; responsible for enforcing intellectual property laws related to optical media. Despite the OMB's efforts, piracy remains a persistent problem, particularly in the digital domain. The researcher conducted surveys among OMB personnel and licensed clients, utilizing a quantitative descriptive method and purposive sampling technique. The comprehensive evaluation of the OMB's anti-piracy efforts revealed that the board was very effective in several key areas, including: intelligence/enforcement operations, information campaigns, digital piracy operations and quasi-judicial functions. Both OMB personnel and clients acknowledged the high effectiveness of these areas. However, there were perceptible differences in the perception of information campaigns among the respondents. The study recommends that the OMB intensify its efforts in this domain by disseminating information about piracy trends, emerging threats, and best practices to stakeholders. This collaborative approach aims to enhance the overall effectiveness of government-led anti-piracy initiatives. Furthermore, the challenges faced by the OMB are highlighted in the study, particularly the international nature of piracy operations, which is widely regarded as a formidable obstacle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The crazy, unconscious use of the Internet, and the increase in cybercrime and hacking, which resulted in the loss of a large number of sensitive data, the risk of piracy, etc. were the motivation for protecting rights, securing and hiding essential information such as images, audio, etc. Watermarking was a popular security, copyright and privacy approach and one of the problems in modern quantum digital computing that produced more powerful quantum protection techniques than the classical one that used classical techniques such as digital wavelet transformation and Hungarian algorithms. Recent advances in quantum image representation and processing help to manipulate data hidden. This paper proposes a new watermark technique in which a color watermark image is hidden within another color-carrying image after transformation into the quantum domain using the recently completed quantum color image representation technique. Finally, a comparison is made between the proposed method and the most recent watermarking techniques is establish in terms of PSNR (peak signal-to-noise ratio), which shows the high precision of the proposed technique and improves the imperceptibility compared to the related schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document discusses the importance of digital security in educational contexts and the need for teachers and students to have adequate digital competence. It emphasizes the need for educational institutions to promote the use of security measures and barriers to protect against viruses and malicious attacks. The document also highlights the risks associated with the use of apps and virtual learning platforms and the need for educators and parents to address these risks. Several research studies are presented, which reveal deficiencies in pre-service teachers' digital security skills and knowledge. The document concludes by calling for improved educational curricula and practices to strengthen digital security in the educational field. [Extracted from the article]

This research aims to examine the explanatory and predictive power of seven theoretical models based on neutralisation theory, perceived risk theory, the theory of interpersonal behaviour, the theory of reasoned action, the theory of planned behaviour, the theory of self-regulation, and the norm activation theory. A total of 247 usable data were collected through a survey and analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling. The in-sample and out-of-sample predictive power of each model was assessed. The results indicate that there are different factors influencing consumers' intentions to pirate digital products. Among the seven theories, the theory of interpersonal behaviour ranks first, and perceived risk theory last in terms of explanatory and predictive power. This study is the very first to examine the explanatory and predictive power of seven different theoretical models using advanced PLS-SEM techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the development of the times, science and technology are developing very quickly, allowing traditional works which are usually in physical form to be transformed into digital format. This research aims to examine legal protection methods for intellectual works in a digital context and identify the role of the government in preventing piracy of digital works. This research uses a normative juridical approach, which views law from the perspective of texts in statutory regulations and norms or standards of behavior that are considered appropriate. Copyright Law Number 28 of 2014 Article 4 articulates that copyright is an exclusive right that includes moral rights and economic rights. Individuals who wish to use the Economic Rights of a work must obtain permission from the creator or copyright owner. The legal protection is confirmed by a firm and appropriate sanctions by law enforcers by existing legislation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Computer und Recht is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Digital products companies are increasingly adopting subscription pricing, but consumers who pay the subscription service may not be able to access all digital products sold on the sales platform. This paper explores the question of why some digital products are not in the subscription service of the sales platform. To address this problem, we develop an analytical model to examine two strategies of the firm. One is that the firm does not add the new product into the subscription service, the other is that the firm adds the new product into the subscription service. By comparing the profits under two sets, we find the condition under which the firm should add the new digital product into the subscription service. The results show that if the percentage of existing subscribers is below a certain threshold, and the subscription price is over a certain threshold, it is better for the firm to add the new product into the subscription service. We also analyze how the main variables affect the firm's profit and the piracy rate. Our research provides useful insights for firms in choosing pricing schemes for the newly released product and offers advice for policymakers on controlling the piracy rate of digital products industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The second article in this Special Section reflects the actions of not one AI firm, but instead 1,387 publicly-traded companies in the People's Republic of China from 2007 to 2018. An interesting, empirically testable implication of the authors' theoretical analysis is whether different enforcement regimes, which result in differences of piracy cost, do result in the nuanced prevalence (or not) of product bundles on the local markets for information goods as it would be predicted by the model. The authors report that they found evidence for a causal link in the presence of higher-intensity AI investments proxied by the estimated AI applications of individual firms with their overall employment as well as higher employment of nonacademically-trained workers. The authors' results are developed as a function of product similarity (amounting to a valuation discount factor between 0 and 1) and (expected per-product) piracy cost, which provides a somewhat new perspective, as the set of parameters where bundling dominates becomes nonconvex - due to the newly discovered "wedge" of intermediate piracy costs and sufficiently high product similarity. [Extracted from the article]

Aiming at the problem of cartoon piracy and plagiarism, this paper proposes a method of cartoon copyright recognition based on character personality actions. This method can be used to compare the original cartoon actions with the action characteristics of pirated or copied cartoons to identify whether there is piracy or plagiarism. Firstly, an image preprocessing scheme for character extraction is designed. GrabCut interactive image segmentation algorithm was used to obtain cartoon characters, and then binarization and morphological processing were performed on the results. Secondly, a feature extraction scheme based on character profile, moving character and character pose is designed. By extracting the perimeter and area of the character contour, the length-to-width ratio of the smallest rectangle and the inclination angle of the contour, the character contour features are obtained. The three-dimensional coordinates are established by the central point position of the cartoon character in the two-dimensional image and the change of the character's zoom in and out, and the character's motion angle characteristics are calculated. By skeletonizing a character to obtain the pose characteristics, and using deburring operation to remove redundant branches, then extract the skeleton joint angle information. Finally, feature fusion is performed on the extracted features. The experimental results show that the proposed method breaks the limitation of the conventional single feature based recognition, and can better extract the character features including contour feature, motion feature and pose feature through multi-feature based extraction, so as to protect the cartoon copyright. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Illegal file sharing of copyrighted contents through popular file sharing networks poses an enormous threat to providers of digital contents, such as, games, softwares, music and movies. Though empirical studies of network effects on piracy is a well-studied domain, the dynamics of peer effect in the context of evolving social contagion has not been enough explored using dynamical models. In this research, we methodically study the trends of online piracy with a continuous ODE approach and differential equations on graphs to have a clear comparative view. We first formulate a compartmental model to study bifurcations and thresholds mathematically. We later move on with a network-based analysis to illustrate the proliferation of online piracy dynamics with an epidemiological approach over a social network. We figure out a solution for this online piracy problem by developing awareness among individuals and introducing media campaigns, which could be a valuable factor in eradicating and controlling online piracy. Next, using degree-block approximation, network analysis has been performed to investigate the phenomena from a heterogeneous approach and to derive the threshold condition for the persistence of piracy in the population in a steady state. Considering the dual control of positive peer influence and media-driven awareness, we examine the system through realistic parameter selection to better understand the complexity of the dynamics and suggest policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article determines the factors that influence the illegal electronic books download in Spain. Firstly, through the review of the existing literature, a survey is conducted on the consumption habits of electronic books and other series of questions related to social and psychological factors on noncompliance with the law. Secondly, the mentioned survey was carried out to 404 consumers for the construction of an ad hoc database. Afterwards, a binomial econometric model is used with these data. The results indicate that the social environment and the crime neutralization mechanisms play a fundamental role in the probability of incurring in the illegal download of electronic books. Other factors such as the perception of the risk of being sanctioned or persecuted are not significant. The article contributes, with data, to the potential design of policies related to piracy within the book sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Etnolingual is the property of Universitas Airlangga and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The legislative report titled "Protecting Lawful Streaming Act of 2020" discusses the Act's goal of combatting unlawful streaming of copyrighted material by increasing criminal penalties. It allows the Department of Justice to bring felony charges against those who illegally stream copyrighted material for commercial advantage or financial gain. The report emphasizes the need for public education about the consequences of digital piracy and illegal streaming. It examines previous acts and legal frameworks related to copyright infringement and acknowledges the challenges of keeping up with evolving technology. The report suggests a combined approach of legal measures and educational initiatives to create a cultural shift and reduce the demand for pirated content. [Extracted from the article]

Digital technology and the Internet have revolutionized the entertainment media industry by harnessing network effects and transforming content creation and distribution. However, these advances have also brought challenges, especially regarding intellectual property, with significant long-term implications for entertainment media companies. While the existing literature on this topic is limited, this study aims to analyze the impact of these trends using the Metcalfe and McLuhan effects and provide insights to help traditional media companies thrive in this changing environment. The Metcalfe effect, exemplifying network effects, suggests that the increasing number of Internet users generates economies of scale, amplifies content value, and facilitates the emergence of distribution channels and revenue opportunities in the entertainment media industry. Additionally, the McLuhan effect emphasizes the transformative role of information media in reshaping content production and dissemination. However, the rapid development of the Internet has inadvertently facilitated the piracy of entertainment media content, necessitating the attention and implementation of effective countermeasures by industry stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technological advancements have made it easier to access, reproduce, and share digital media content. But this invariably brings new challenges too, and one of them is digital piracy. Digital piracy is the act of illegal and unauthorized copying, downloading, and sharing of content via online platforms. It not only results in unauthorized distribution of the content, but also hurts the prospects of the producers of such contents who could create a legitimate business model and sell their contents. This study delves into the multifaceted realm of digital piracy and examines the role and liabilities of Internet Service Providers (ISPs). It also discusses the provisions relating to digital piracy in India, primarily under the Copyrights Act, 1957, and the Information Technology Act, 2000, and the formidable challenges associated with enforcing copyright laws in the digital realm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses recent changes to construction laws regarding the reporting of "Beneficial Ownership Information" (BOI) for small business entities. The Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) requires certain entities, including corporations, LLCs, and foreign companies registered in the US, to report BOI to a federal database maintained by the US Department of Treasury. There are exemptions for certain regulated industries, but law firms and construction industry participants are not specifically exempt. The article also outlines the reporting requirements, access to information, and information security measures. However, concerns have been raised about the storage of personally identifiable information and the access to such information by enforcement agencies. [Extracted from the article]

Hardware implementations of cryptographic primitives require protection against physical attacks and supply chain threats. This raises the question of secure composability of different attack countermeasures, i.e., whether protecting a circuit against one threat can make it more vulnerable against a different threat. In this article, we study the consequences of applying logic locking, a popular design-for-trust solution against intellectual property piracy and overproduction, to cryptographic circuits. We show that the ability to unlock the circuit incorrectly gives the adversary new powerful attack options. We introduce LEDFA (locking-enabled differential fault analysis) and demonstrate for several ciphers and families of locking schemes that fault attacks become possible (or consistently easier) for incorrectly unlocked circuits. In several cases, logic locking has made circuit implementations prone to classical algebraic attacks with no fault injection needed altogether. We refer to this "zero-fault" version of LEDFA by the term LEDA, investigate its success factors in-depth and propose a countermeasure to protect the logic-locked implementations against LEDA. We also perform test vector leakage assessment (TVLA) of incorrectly unlocked AES implementations to show the effects of logic locking regarding side-channel leakage. Our results indicate that logic locking is not safe to use in cryptographic circuits, making them less rather than more secure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the internet as a medium of music distribution and how it shapes the intellectual property rights of Nigerian musicians with a particular focus on their revenue. It does so by examining existing data on revenue from two recording musicians whose works are distributed via mainstream channels and the Internet. Methodologically, the article employs both descriptive and survey designs. Data were collected using questionnaires, interviews, and previous literature. The findings reveal that the gains of music copyright can be guaranteed more by the internet rather than mainstream distribution channels. This is so because the internet offers cost-effective music promotional services and credible indices for the sales of musical works. Despite the traces of music piracy on the internet, the medium breaks the oligopoly of the record labels and the subjugation of artists as principal stakeholders in the music business. In all, we argue that unless and until (Nigerian) musicians focus on the internet for their music distribution, the issue of limited revenue as a result of infringement will persist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consumers are attracted by the increasing number of available SVOD platforms, but it would be too expensive to pay the subscription fees for all of them. To reduce costs, consumers can combine the use of proprietary subscriptions, non-proprietary subscriptions, and illegal streaming sites. In turn, platforms could enforce access control, a decision that might produce the desired reduction in non-proprietary subscriptions but also an undesired reduction in proprietary subscriptions. The effects of this decision and the determinants of SVOD content demand remain largely unexplored. We propose a baseline model where the SVOD content demand is driven by variety seeking, household financial situation, ethical evaluation, and social norms, as well as a change model where the subscription variation is driven by users' trait reactance and perceived fairness of the decision. We conducted a survey on the current ways SVOD content is consumed and responses to a hypothetical access control enforcement, with four randomized versions of the authentication mode. Results confirmed many of the proposed determinants and showed a noteworthy reduction in proprietary subscriptions due to the control enforcement but no effect due to the authentication modes. All these findings may help improve future models of SVOD content consumption and better address the difficult challenge of converting unauthorized users into authorized ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Computer und Recht is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The piracy of digital products has become an urgent problem to be solved. Robust watermarking is a promising technique for copyright protection. To go against rapidly increasing attacks, many techniques have been proposed in the transform domain for ensuring the quality of water marked image, the robustness of extracted watermark, and execution time. Among these techniques, the LU decomposition is considered an out- standing transformation in terms of computation. However, some pixel matrices cannot be decomposed as the product of a lower triangular matrix and an upper triangular matrix, and embedding them into two elements reduces the quality of the watermark image. Therefore, this paper proposes a novel image watermarking scheme based on a LU block selection strategy and an improved embedding algorithm. First, a pixel block is only applied LU decomposition and embedded a watermark bit when all determinants of sub-matrices are non-zero. Second, an effective embedding formula is proposed where the watermark is embedded into one element of suitable blocks. This solution helps to limit the modification of pixel values and enhance the quality of the watermarked image. Third, to decrease the extraction time, a novel formula is built for calculating embedded elements instead of LU decomposition. The experimental results show that our proposed method has the better visual quality of watermarked images and can effectively extract the watermark under some attacks, such as blurring, sharpening, and salt & pepper noise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the impact of batch DNS filtering of copyright-infringing websites, a novel administrative-based process that does not require judicial involvement. In partnership with a large telecommunication provider, we measure the impact of this intervention on piracy activity and the legal alternatives integrated into households' media subscription bundles, an aspect largely unexplored in prior literature. We find a significant reduction in Internet traffic, which proxies piracy activity. However, we do not observe statistically significant changes in the consumption of the legal alternatives under consideration, only a slight increase in TV viewership. To further understand these outcomes, we examine the heterogeneity of these results based on households' pre-block usage intensity of digital piracy and demographic characteristics. Our work contributes to the literature on the effectiveness of piracy control strategies and informs policy makers and industry practitioners about the benefits and limitations of DNS-based website blocking. • Digital pirates are heavy users of paid and free legal media. • DNS blocks on piracy sites lower Internet traffic, indicating less piracy. • DNS blocks don't affect pay-TV, VoD, and paid channels' consumption. • DNS blocks are less effective against piracy in households with young people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The successful investigation and prosecution of significant crimes, including child pornography, insurance fraud, movie piracy, traffic monitoring, and scientific fraud, hinge largely on the availability of solid evidence to establish the case beyond any reasonable doubt. When dealing with digital images/videos as evidence in such investigations, there is a critical need to conclusively prove the source camera/device of the questioned image. Extensive research has been conducted in the past decade to address this requirement, resulting in various methods categorized into brand, model, or individual image source camera identification techniques. This paper presents a survey of all those existing methods found in the literature. It thoroughly examines the efficacy of these existing techniques for identifying the source camera of images, utilizing both intrinsic hardware artifacts such as sensor pattern noise and lens optical distortion, and software artifacts like color filter array and auto white balancing. The investigation aims to discern the strengths and weaknesses of these techniques. The paper provides publicly available benchmark image datasets and assessment criteria used to measure the performance of those different methods, facilitating a comprehensive comparison of existing approaches. In conclusion, the paper outlines directions for future research in the field of source camera identification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because of today's tremendous economic growth, social, and technological advances, the world has seen the formation of economic blocs. The intensity of the rivalry between domestic and foreign products has increased to improve their capacity in terms of quality and price, while e-commerce has grown in popularity, both with exhibitors and consumers. The citizens can search the internet for their needs at any time, in any country, but new risks have emerged that threaten the consumer who purchases and concludes contracts electronically, such as fraud risks, misrepresentation, commercial extortion, and piracy, as well as the consumer's inability to truly inspect the contractual object, and so on. In this survey, we give a study that clarifies the types of deceptive ads that are made online, whether through spam or popular advertising sites like Craigslist or online dating, and we show what action may be taken to prevent ad fraud. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the factors influencing consumers' decisions to opt for pirated products within the digital realm. It provides a definition of digital piracy and elucidates its adverse impact on the parties implicated. Additionally, the research highlights the challenge of addressing and combating this infringement of intellectual property rights in the digital environment, emphasizing the widespread acceptance of such practices and its consequential financial repercussions for affected companies due to people's inactivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We develop a model in which software developers react to anticipated digital piracy either by undercutting piracy or by acquiring digital rights management (DRM) technology from a third-party DRM provider. DRM delays pirated copies to an uncertain future time, incentivizing impatient consumers to purchase a legitimate copy immediately. DRM, however, is a source of disutility for users. The somewhat counter-intuitive key results are that developers increase expected profit by credibly agreeing upon release to remove DRM from legitimate copies once DRM has been cracked, but it is not necessarily true that the eventual removal of DRM increases expected buyer welfare relative to indefinitely retained DRM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Netflix's arrival in Australia in 2015, almost a decade after its start as a streaming media platform, helped to close the cultural and technological gap in televisual content legitimately available to the national audience. Australians, eager for international content unavailable locally, had turned to Internet piracy, dramatically changing traditional national televisual consumption practices. Although commonly described as "disruptive," Netflix's arrival in Australia, according to its users, was mostly stabilizing and not as transformative to their viewing practices as it may seem. By drawing on in-depth interviews with Australian Netflix users, we provide an account of its early integration into the Australian media landscape. The methodology provides a new model for examining the experience of users engaging with technologies labeled as "disruptive." The Disruption-Experience (D-E) model is a means for exploring participants' experiences and accounting for ways that new technologies can reinforce, undermine and dramatically shift user thoughts, feelings and practices. In applying this model to the experiences of Australian Netflix users, we discovered that Netflix concretized—but did not necessarily create—a new set of expectations about agency, accessibility, and temporality that has not previously been accounted for. This is an important discovery at a time of rapid proliferation and adoption of streaming video-on-demand (SVOD) services in Australia, as the competing costs and demands of multiple services could mean a return to the once-prodigious levels of illegal and unauthorized access to television content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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We study how private intellectual property rights protection affects equilibrium prices in a duopoly competition between firms that offer a product variety of distinct qualities (vertical product differentiation) in a setup that is closely related to that put forward by Jain where firms offer the same qualities in equilibrium (horizontal product differentiation). Consumers may make a choice to buy a legal version, use an illegal copy (if they want to and can), or not use a product at all. Using an illegal version violates intellectual property rights protection and is thus punishable when discovered. Thus, both private and public (copyright) intellectual property rights protection are available on scene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we developed and tested a theoretical model to understand online music piracy behavior via email and instant messaging. We developed this theoretical model by drawing on a comprehensive literature review on music piracy, theory of reasoned action, social identity, and the deterrence theory. We collected primary data to test the hypotheses, and the results from the partial least squares analyses suggest attitude toward music file-sharing behavior and social identity positively affect intention to pirate music, whereas the perceived severity and certainty of punishment do not have significant effects on the attitude. The findings highlight the important role of social identity when a theoretical model with the concept explains music file-sharing behavior without monetary benefits in return. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]